DIY Christmas, some reasons why

Yes it is just around the corner that either dreadful or delicious time of the year.  For many the holiday preps are a chore, stressful and too often expensive. For those who thrive on routine and regularity, the inevitable schedule change awakens anxiety. For some family reunions too often gone wrong is a source of many more headaches. Many want to get it over with as quickly as possible: too many family get togethers or too few; too much food or not enough; a proliferation of gifts, often unnapreciated and many times useless because given just to give, or on the flip side very few...

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Publié le 18 nov 2009
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Thinking inside the box

Boxes in art therapy are often used as a framework to explore inner and outer realities. With lids they offer the possible exploration of the private inner spaces while the outside becomes more of the public self or what is visible to the world out there.  Clients are invited to paint, draw, collage or add words and pictures depicting these realities.

Deborah Fisher, New Skin with Accessories, 1999, mixed media, 2.5 x 10 x 12.75 inches

But there are also more complex and sophisticated ways of thinking about these. Anna Belle Kaufman (1996) writes: « [A]n exploration of boxes begins with...

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Publié le 29 oct 2009
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Mes créations-update

feutre, organza, fils à broder, laine
feutre, organza, fils à broder, laine

J’ai promis de tenir le lectorat au courant de mes avancées créatives.  Voici une broderie techniques mixtes que j’ai fait sur fond de feutrine noire. J’avais des retailles d’organza que je me suis amusée à découper au fer chaud (pyrogravure ou stencil) en faisant des ouvertures en formes de petites feuilles. Chacune des trois couleurs d’organza a été superposée et collée à la feutrine avec de l’entoilage thermocollant wonder under et un fer chaud (protéger la surface avec une feuille de papier parchemin ou de papier siliconé) avant que le tout...

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Publié le 23 oct 2009
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Idée : sacs de plastique réinventés

Une nouvelle technique à ajouter à votre coffre à outils créatif.

Aujourd’hui nous allons nous réapproprier certaines matières recyclables: les sacs de plastiques.  Si vous êtes une citoyenne avisée, tout ce dont vous avez besoin se trouve dans votre bac de recyclage.

Vous aurez besoin:

Sacs de plastiques fusionnés

Sacs de plastiques fusionnés

  • des sacs de type Wallmart, LaBaie, RénoDépot (plastique mince et propres évidemment)
  • deux feuilles de papier à photocopie assez grandes (papier photocopie, kraft, etc)
    • OU le papier parchemin utilisé en cuisine est encore mieux (acheter à l’épicerie en rouleau)
  • un fer à...
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Publié le 23 oct 2009
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9

International art therapy

Art Therapy Alliance and International Art Therapy Organization [IATO]

Find out what is going on art therapy wise around the world. Read the first issue of Fusion, the International Art Therapy Alliance’s e-zine publication.

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Publié le 21 oct 2009
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Attachment markers in family drawings

Research on insecure child attachments has found significant correlation between early attachment history and family drawing indicators,  ruling out present day circumstances and IQ in children ages 8-9 years of low socio-economic status.

The research contrasts two measures of attachment taken at 12 and 18 months, with the following assessments: Child behavior checklist (teacher reports), Maternal Life Stress measures over 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades, Child IQ tests taken at 8.5 years.

For a description of child attachment categories click this link.

The study found the following drawing...

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Publié le 20 oct 2009
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8

Drawing to know

Milton Glaser a well known designer, speaks of drawing as consciousness: « a fundamental way of knowing the world ». I use observational drawing with some clients as a way to help them really see what is around them, to grasp what is actually there. Some fears, anxieties, eating disorders for example, stem in part from a distorted sense of reality. Training to really see is an exercise in correcting cognitive distortions, of realizing what we think at times is perhaps not an accurate assessment of what is actually there.

MILTON GLASER DRAWS & LECTURES from C. Coy on

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Publié le 15 oct 2009
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4

Art theories and drawings

There are many ways of apprehending children’s art, many conceptual windows from which artwork can be viewed.

I re-read  Betty Joe Troeger’s(1992) article : Application of child art theories to the interpretation of children’s art (in AT: JAATA).  The paper is an overview of theories used to interpret children’s drawings. She lists nine influential theories informed by art education, psychoanalysis, gestalt, developmental and cognitive psychology. These are:

  • naive realism (McFee, 1961);
  • recapitulation (Kellogg, 1969) informed by Jung;
  • personality (Clarke, 1979) informed by Freudian...
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Publié le 11 oct 2009
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Types of art therapy in Britain

It is well known that there are many ways to practice art therapy, and there are important differences within and across countries. Britain in contrast to North America tends to privilege psychoanalytically informed  approaches as you will see below. The excerpt is taken from a recent article by Susan Hogan, a prominent art therapist who writes on history and gender related issues in art therapy. It is intended as a overview of the field in Britain, not a critique, nor does it attempt to point out some of the contradictions across various approaches.

Hogan, S. (June 2009). The art therapy...

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Publié le 09 oct 2009
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5

Tree as self symbol

Assessment procedures that use the tree as a symbol are the HTP: House, Tree, Person Test (Buck, 1948); TDT Tree Drawing Test (Koch, 1952);  DDS: Diagnostic Drawing Series (Cohen 1985); PPAT Person Picking an Apple from a Tree (Gantt 1990); TTM Tree Theme Method (Alexi & Gunnarsson 1995).

Artist Martin Stankewitz

Artist Martin Stankewitz

A tree is often seen as a symbol of self, the form evocative of the human body, feet on the ground, trunk with arms reaching out. A tree experiences changes through the seasons, it ages and withers, growns and flourishes and thus makes it an ideal projective tool. Carl Jung...

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Publié le 09 oct 2009
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